Sundara Kanda, Sarga 5

Meaning

Thereupon the wise Hanumān beheld the moon arrived at the meridian and repeatedly spreading out the canopy of its light over the earth like the sun, and resembling a bull in rut ranging in a cow-pen. (1)

Meaning

He forthwith saw the moon dispelling the sins and the resultant afflictions of the world by shedding light everywhere and thereby minimizing the chances of sins being committed by the people, nay, swelling by drawing up tides in the ocean and giving light to all created beings while advancing in the heavens. (2)

Meaning

The same splendour which is visible on Mount Mandāra on earth, which plays during evenings on the sea, and which rests on a lotus in the waters shone forth in the delightful moon. (3)

Meaning

The moon shone forth in the heavens much in the same way as a swan displays its charm in a silvery cage, as a lion in a cave of Mount Mandāra and as a hero mounted on a proud elephant. (4)

Meaning

The full moon with its horn-like spot fully developed looked exceptionally charming like a bull with pointed horns, like the great white mountain, Himālaya, so-called because of its remaining clothed with snow, with its lofty peaks and like an elephant with gold-plated tusks. (5)

Meaning

The glorious moon bearing the earth’s shadow in the form of a hare-like figure in the bosom of its orb—whose stain in the form of cold water and frost (which are supposed to have their origin in the moon, the storehouse of cold) had been washed away due to proximity to the equator, nay, by whom stain in the form of darkness had been wiped away through the reflection of the rays of the sun (the big star) and whose spot had turned resplendent through the wealth of its effulgence shone brightly. (6)

Meaning

The radiant moon looked exceptionally splendid in the same way as the king of beasts on ascending the level surface of a rock, as a lordly elephant on penetrating deep into a large forest and a ruler of men on duly reaching his own kingdom. (7)

Meaning

The glorious evening, the evil attaching to which in the form of darkness, which gives an incentive to the commission of dark deeds, has been dispelled by the appearance of the bright moon, nay, whose other blot in the form of flesh-eating by ogres has been intensified, and in which the bitterness of mind caused by unrequited love of young women and their lovers is wiped away, scattered bliss. (8)

Meaning

The strains of the lute, delightful to the ear, have started. Women of good moral character are sleeping with their husbands. Nay, rangers of the night too of very strange and violent behaviour have likewise started disporting themselves. (9)

Meaning

The sagacious Hanumān beheld there mansions of arrogant and intoxicated ogres connected together, nay, crowded with chariots, horses and seats of gold and also full of fortune enjoyed by heroes. (10)

Meaning

The proud ogres railed at one another in profusion and even threw about their stout arms too in a bellicose spirit, uttered wild and incoherent words and insulted one another. (11)

Meaning

Nay, the ogres smote their breasts as a form of exercise and lovingly placed their hands and other limbs on the person of their beloved ones. They also put on various garbs to please their wives and drew their strong bows by way of practice. (12)

Meaning

Hanumān further observed that lovely women were applying sandal-paste on their bodies, while others in those mansions were lying asleep. Some with a lovely exterior and countenance were laughing whereas still others, who had been angered through love were hissing like an angry serpent. (13)

Meaning

Nay, with its trumpeting huge elephants, and likewise with its highly virtuous souls like Vibhīṣaṇa greatly adored as well as with its hissing heroes, the city of Laṅkā looked charming like lakes infested, inter alia, with hissing serpents. (14)

Meaning

Hanumān beheld in that city Yatudhānas, who were predominantly intellectual, who were sweet of expression, fully devout and pre-eminent in the world, nay, who were dressed in various garbs and were called by charming names. (15)

Meaning

He rejoiced to see the latter, who were comely of form and endowed with many virtues and who behaved in consonance with their virtues. Nay, he found those who were comely of form, even though some were misshapen, shining brightly. (16)

Meaning

He then saw their womenfolk, who were deserving of excellent attire and ornaments, were exceedingly pure-hearted and dignified, whose mind was enamoured of their beloved ones as well as of beverages, who shone like stars and were of excellent disposition. (17)

Meaning

He further beheld some women who shone brightly with their wealth of beauty and character and were adorned with bashfulness, who were embraced at dead of night by their husbands like female birds by their mates and were filled with excessive joy. (18)

Meaning

The wise Hanumān saw still other women, who were highly esteemed in the eyes of their husbands, were devoted to their duty towards their husbands and had been lawfully married to them and were possessed by love—perched on the roof of their mansions and seated most comfortably in the lap of their beloved ones. (19)

Meaning

Again there were some women possessing the hue of a golden streak and shorn of their outer garment, while some other highly excellent women possessed the hue of refined gold. Some more, who had been disunited from their husbands, were pale as the moon, though possessed of a lovely complexion. (20)

Meaning

The said Hanumān, the foremost hero among the monkeys, then saw most charming young women happy in their homes and filled with great delight to meet their beloved ones—who were highly pleasing to their mind—and lovely with flowers on their person. (21)

Meaning

He also observed rows of faces shining as the moon, nay, rows of shapely oblique eyes with beautiful lashes and, even so, rows of ornaments resembling charming flashes of lightning. (22)

Meaning

He, however, did not find anywhere the frail Sītā, sprung from the mind of the creator and supremely high-born—descended as she was in a royal house, the House of Nimi, fixed on the path of virtue, and resembling a lovely climber in full blossom. (23)

Meaning

Hanumān at once turned languid, as it were, afflicted as he was with sorrow, on not finding, even after striving for a long time, the celebrated Sītā, the consort of Śrī Rāma, a ruler of men, the best of speakers, Sītā, who was firmly established in the eternal path of devotion to her husband, who had her eyes fixed on Śrī Rāma alone, who was possessed by love for Śrī Rāma, who had penetrated deep into the dignified mind of her spouse and was ever exalted above all other women; who was tormented with anguish born of separation from her consort, whose throat was choked with tears incessantly flowing from her eyes, whose neck was heretofore adorned with an excellent gold ornament worthy of the foremost, who was distinguished by beautiful eyelashes, who had a charming throat and when united with her spouse resembled a pea-hen merrily dancing in a forest; who in her soiled clothes and unclean person in her captivity shone like the crescent with its outline blurred due to its being screened by a cloud or a streak of gold soiled with dust, was prominent like a scar left by a wound (serving as a reminder of the injury sustained by Śrī Rāma in the shape of her abduction) and who, while being carried to Laṅkā, shone like the streak of a cloud swept by the wind. (24—27)